Ahead of China data, Asian markets down, Nifty futures up

Hong Kong: After Friday’s bizarre ‘flash crash’ on the Nifty, the market is looking to edge up this morning. But the overall sentiment in global markets, ahead of key China manufacturing data due out this morning, is downbeat.

As at 7.30 am IST, Nifty futures are trading up nearly one half of 1 percent. But even they have been drifting down since the start of the trade this morning.

That’s because, markets elsewhere in the region are all in the red, bracing for the manufacturing data from China. If the data confirms a slowdown, as is feared, investor sentiment could take a beating.

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Political news coming out of Europe, particularly in France, where President Nicholas Sarkozy ended second in the first round of elections, heightened concerns that Europe’s debt crisis won’t be easily resolved with the relative rise of right-wing parties.

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Back home, corporate earnings, including from marquee names, will determine market moves this week. Foreign institutional investor inflow is pretty good; although FIIs pumped in only about $109 million in April, they’ve brought in nearly $9 billion so far this year, which is a contrast compared to last year, when they took their money and raw away.

Analysts expect markets to trend up on the back reasonably good corporate results.

For today, we’ll likely see a mildly positive start - unless China data drags down sentiment even further.